Fortnite Battle Royale Mode Takes Aim At PUBG

Fortnite rewarded their Early Access community with a survival mode after cracking one million players, though it was slightly delayed due to stability concerns. In what may be a surprise to many, they've added another new game mode and it channels the energy of another game that is steadily growing in popularity. Starting today, players can test out a Battle Royale mode that mixes the white-knuckle tension of PUBG with the methodical planning of Fortnite's construction mechanic.

The expected features are there, with 100 players battling to be the last man standing in an isolated battlefield. You'll jump onto an island from a flying bus with nothing but a pickaxe and that's when you'll start to see the line blur between the usual Battle Royale formula and the mechanics from Fortnite's base gameplay mode. Instead of just using the dwellings on the map as your hideouts, you can build fortifications after you collect resources with your pickaxe. There are weapons to craft and find as well, but you'll also be able to set traps on your path to being the last player standing. The new mode is available in test servers now but will go live officially for all players on September 26.

Epic's Worldwide Creative Director specifically mentions PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and H1Z1 when speaking of the inspiration to add a Battle Royale play mode to Fortnite. PUBG is a massive hit that has sold over ten million units and holds the concurrent player crown on Steam, so there's no surprise that other developers want to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Battle Royale game mode. Even Rockstar got into the mix with a new mode included in their latest update for Grand Theft Auto V. PUBG's success comes despite the fact that it's still in Early Access and it looks like Epic is hoping to have similar success with Fortnite's Early Acess phase.

Get familiar with Fortnite's base game mode with our collection of guides and stay tuned for more guide content as new features are added to the gameplay.

I know people will be pooping on the copycatting, but at least they're up front about it and even call out PUBG and H1Z1 as inspirations in the video.

Fortnight was really not very interesting to me back when I tried it, but something like this mixed in with all the other mechanics at your disposal could actually be really fun. I feel like it won't put a dent into Battlegrounds, nothing will, but maybe it will help their game grow a tiny bit.

The guy in the IGN preview video that auto played after made a good point:

Fortnite will eventually be free to play, and this mode will be launching on consoles soon for those that buy the founders pack. Will beat PUBG to that market on PS4 and Xbox (update comes out sept 26th), so even if it really doesn't compare, it will still be the only game in town for a while on console. And especially PS4 since the Xbox version of PUBG has some exclusivity period.